Knobbed Horse

Nights 343-366

We start the week with some unremarkable short stories, then a couple of nasty misogynistic stories about sex with animals, then finally the Ebony Horse. I know the Ebony Horse from Magic, so I was looking forward to seeing what it was.

It's awesome! The Ebony Horse is an artificial horse that can fly. It has a “protuberance” or a “knob” in various places near its head that can control it. (p. 128, Night 357) It sounds like an Arabian dream about helicopters. And it's actually made of both ivory and ebony, but usually just described as “ebony.”

I haven't finished the story yet. So far, a prince has used the Ebony Horse to fly to a princess in Sa’na, trick her into sleeping with him, and flee town. He goes back for her, but then loses both her and the horse to the ugly Persian man that had originally brought the Ebony Horse to the king. I'm eager to learn their fate next week.

Poetry Writing Constraints

Chapters 78-80 Tons of plot in these chapters. Most importantly, we get the deaths of a major character (Cao Cao) and minor characters (Xiahou Dun, Hua Tuo, Liu Feng). Hua Tuo’s death is one of my favorites, given my love of lost books. His “Book of the Black

The Devil Goes Down to Arabia

Nights 681-695 After the last couple weeks, I was worried that I was tiring of the Nights. But there was some good stuff here! My enthusiasm for the Nights has been restored. We can thank al-Asma’i, who the index says was a real-life expert on the

Head is a Hot Potato

Chapters 76-77 With the biggest death of the book so far, and likely one of the biggest in the book overall, we really get the sense of the end of a great one. Sun Quan beheads Lord Guan and quickly regrets it. Sun is advised that Liu Bei will

Seriousness replaced absurdity

Nights 649-680 It’s hard for me to say why I found this story so much more tiresome than what came before it. Maybe I’m getting tired of the Nights. Maybe work is particularly stressful right now. If I were to look for an objective reason, I’d

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Poetry Writing Constraints

The Devil Goes Down to Arabia

Head is a Hot Potato

Seriousness replaced absurdity